This invention relates to an electric stringed musical instrument and, more particularly, to an electric stringed musical instrument of the type having a frame body and an electric stringed musical instrument system including an electric stringed musical instrument and a sound generating system.
Electric guitars belong to the electric stringed musical instrument. Players usually sling the electric guitars over their shoulders with straps, and pluck the strings so as to give rise to vibrations of the strings. The vibrations of the strings are converted to electric signals by means of pickup units, and the electric tones are radiated from the associated sound systems.
Various sorts of electric guitars have been proposed and sold in the market. Electric guitars with solid bodies have been popular to the guitarists. The electric guitars have solid bodies, and necks project from the solid bodies. Strings are stretched over the necks, and the pickup units are provided under the strings. The solid body is made from a wood panel or of synthetic resin, and silver fir or spruce is preferable for the solid body. Although several sorts of solid bodies are formed with hollow spaces, the hollow spaces are not expected to serve as resonators, because the amplifiers increase the loudness of the electric tones.
Nevertheless, some electric guitars have bodies formed with resonators, and are called as xe2x80x9celectric acoustic guitarxe2x80x9d. The non-solid body is fabricated from deck boards and a sideboard. The deck boards and sideboard define the resonator, and a center block of maple reinforces the non-slid body.
The electric guitars are equipped with electromagnetic pickup units, and the electromagnetic pickup units convert the vibrations of steel strings to the electric signals. Pressure-sensitive pickup units may be employed in other electric guitars. In this instance, nylon strings or gut strings may extend over the pressure-sensitive pickup units.
Thus, various sorts of bodies, pickup units and strings result in a wide variety of electric guitars. As described hereinbefore, the resonators are not required for the electric guitars with the exception of the electric acoustic guitars. Frame bodies have been proposed for the electric guitars. The frame bodies are so light that guitarists feel the electric guitars easy to keep them around the waists.
FIG. 1 shows a typical example of the electric guitar 1. The prior art electric guitar 1 comprises a frame body 2, a trunk 3 and strings 4. The trunk 3 serves as a boss 3a and a neck 3b. The frame body 2 is separable into three frame pieces 2a, 2b and 2c, and the frame piece 2 and pieces 2b/2c sideward project from the both side surfaces of the boss 3a. A fingerboard 5 is adhered to the upper surface of the neck 3b, and frets 6 are embedded in the finger-board 5 at intervals. The strings 4 are made of nylon, and are stretched over the frets 6. A peg box 7 are fixed to the boss 3a, and pegs 8 are rotatably supported by the peg box 7. The strings 4 are wound on the pegs 8, and bridges 9 and 10 make the strings 6 floating over the frets 6. A pickup unit is provided between the upper surface of the trunk 3a and the bridge 10, and converts the vibrations to an electric signal. The electric signal is electrically amplified, and is converted through a speaker system to sound. Thus, the vibrations of strings are magnified without any mechanical resonator.
The frame pieces 2a, 2b and 2c make users to image the outline of the conventional guitar body. The frame pieces 2b and 2c are connected to the left side of the trunk 3, and the other frame piece 2a is connected to the right side of the trunk 3. The frame bodies 2a/2b/2c are detachable from the trunk 3a. The detachable frame body 3 is desirable for users, because they package the trunk 3 and frame body in a small case. The electric guitars with frame bodies are hereinbelow referred to as xe2x80x9celectric frame guitarsxe2x80x9d.
The frame body 2 is so light and easy for packaging that the manufacturers supply various models of frame guitars to the music market. Many pop musicians and rockers give their performances on the frame guitars to the music fans. However, the prior art frame guitars are not available for some music genres. For example, while a guitarist is performing a piece of flamenco music, the guitarist not only plucks the strings but also beats the body. Spanish guitars are used in the performance, and have resonators in the bodies. When the guitarist beats the body, the resonator enlarges the beats, and the melody and rhythm make the flamenco music impressive. Thus, the beats are unique feature of the flamenco. This means that the prior art electric frame guitars are useless, because there is not any board to be beaten. Moreover, even if a board is attached to the frame body 2, the beats are not enlarged, and the guitar sound drowns out the beats.
Another problem inherent in the prior art electric frame guitar is portability of the electric guitar system. When a guitarist practices the prior art electric frame guitar, the guitarist is to connect the pickup unit through a cable to amplifiers, to which a speaker system is to be connected through a cable. When he or she moves to another studio, he or she disconnects the prior art electric frame guitar from the amplifiers and the amplifiers from the speaker system, and conveys the amplifiers and speaker systems to the studio together with the prior art electric frame guitar.
It is therefore an important object of the present invention to provide an electric stringed musical instrument available for the music genres requiring beats as well as tones.
It is also an important object of the present invention to provide an electric stringed musical instrument system, which is compact and portable.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electric stringed frame musical instrument for generating electric tones comprising a trunk having a surface, at least one string connected at both end portions thereof to the trunk and stretched over the surface, a frame body connected to the trunk, a pickup unit provided under the aforesaid at least one string and converting vibrations of the aforesaid at least one string to a first electric signal representative of electric tones to be generated, and an electric percussion unit connected to the trunk and beaten for generating a second electric signal representative of percussion sound to be generated. In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electric stringed frame musical instrument for generating electric tones comprising a trunk having a surface, at least one string connected at both end portions thereof to the trunk and stretched over the surface, a frame body detachably connected to the trunk, a pickup unit provided under the aforesaid at least one string and converting vibrations of the aforesaid at least one string to an electric signal representative of electric tones to be generated, and a signal processing system provided inside of the trunk, connected to the pickup unit for receiving the electric signal and including a speaker detachably connected to the trunk for radiating the electric tones on the basis of the electric signal.